Weak earnings reports of some of the world’s biggest consumer-products firms sent their shares into a tailspin and dashed what could have been the S&P 500’s first four-day run of gains since mid-February.

Although investors have been more muted in their response to companies that have reported stronger-than-expected results, those that miss expectations or offer weak forecasts have faced a harsh rebuke.

“People believed these companies were solid. You take a Procter & Gamble or a
Unilever,
and you think about them as cornerstones of your portfolio,” said Arian Vojdani, an investment strategist with MV Financial, which manages $650 million in assets. “Consumer staples don’t look as strong as people expected.”

The S&P 500 fell 15.51 points, or 0.6%, to 2693.13, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 83.18 points, or 0.3%, to 24664.89. The Nasdaq Composite declined 57.18 points, or 0.8%, to 7238.06.

Investors worry that consumer-products makers are in a rut, as weak inflation,
Amazon.com’s
push into selling more household goods, and shoppers’ fading loyalty to name brands make it hard for those companies to raise prices and expand anywhere near the rates of the market’s most desirable stocks, such as tech companies.

“There’s more disruption ahead for folks who aren’t able to adjust to some of the different buying habits of people,” said Mark Heppenstall, chief investment officer at Penn Mutual Asset Management.

Philip Morris, the seller of Marlboro cigarettes, was the biggest drag on the broad index after it reported revenue that missed analysts’ expectations and cautioned investors that slowing sales volume in the Middle East and other markets, along with pricing competition, could be a drag on earnings this year.

Shares fell $15.80, or 16%, to $85.64, to hit their lowest level since 2015.

European consumer-goods companies were also under pressure after Unilever, which sells Dove soap and Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, and
Nestlé
both struggled to raise prices in the first quarter and logged some of their weakest sales growth in years. Unilever’s shares fell 2.2%, while Nestlé pared earlier losses to end the day up 0.2%.

The broader consumer-staples group in the S&P 500 fell 3.1%, as cigarette makers and household-products companies declined.
Clorox
sank 6%, while
Church & Dwight
slipped 3.1%.

Financial stocks, meanwhile, rose as bond yields moved higher, but the gains weren’t enough to offset the broad declines suffered in most of the S&P 500’s other sectors.

The KBW Nasdaq Bank Index of the biggest U.S. banks added 2.1%, with many of its constituents rising on a jump in yield of the 10-year Treasury note. Higher interest rates typically widen the spread between what banks charge on loans and what they pay on deposits, which should boost their earnings.

Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday.
Photo:
brendan mcdermid/Reuters

Elsewhere, the Stoxx Europe 600 rose less than 0.1%. In Asia, stocks mostly rose, supported by gains in energy companies and Chinese markets.